Dr.
Slingerland, a professor of Asian studies at the University of British
Columbia, argues that the quest for wu wei has been going on ever since humans
began living in groups larger than hunter-gathering clans. Unable to rely on
the bonds of kinship, the first urban settlements survived by developing shared
values, typically through religion, that enabled people to trust one another’s
virtue and to cooperate for the common good.

But
there was always the danger that someone was faking it and would make a
perfectly rational decision to put his own interest first if he had a chance to
shirk his duty. To be trusted, it wasn’t enough just to be a sensible,
law-abiding citizen, and it wasn’t even enough to dutifully strive to be
virtuous. You had to demonstrate that your virtue was so intrinsic that it came
to you effortlessly.

It’s one thing to follow the rules. Effortless trying
involves following the rules and meaning it.

A faked apology is better than no apology, but you ought to aim
toward making sincere apologies.

Some Western thinkers would say that the difference lies in
the state of mind and that one should reconfigure one’s beliefs in order to
make the rule-following more meaningful. To these minds, adding some
understanding will make the gesture meaningful.

Such was not the Confucian way. As Tierney explained, the
key for the Sage was that following the rules consistently, regardless of the
effort required, will show you that they are the right rules and will make them
feel natural, thus, second nature.

As it happens, anyone who gets it right without appearing to
be straining himself will exude confidence and will attract people to him.

Tierney writes:

However
wu wei is attained, there’s no debate about the charismatic effect it creates.
It conveys an authenticity that makes you attractive, whether you’re addressing
a crowd or talking to one person. The way to impress someone on a first date is
to not seem too desperate to impress.

If you appear to be acting out of desperation, people will
feel that you are pushing them away. They will feel that you are so self-absorbed
that you are refusing to connect with them.

If you are treating depression, this philosophy recommends
that you identify the behaviors that signify desperation and replace them with
behaviors that signify confidence.

For Confucius, a right action that becomes second
nature will become sincere.

Sincerity is not a state of mind except in the sense that
the more natural it feels to follow the rules the more you will be able to do
so effortlessly.

If you are making an effort to practice virtue, others will suspect
that you are going through the motions, not really meaning what you are doing.

Tierney explains:

Through
willpower and the rigorous adherence to rules, traditions and rituals, the
Confucian “gentleman” was supposed to learn proper behavior so thoroughly that
it would eventually become second nature to him. He would behave virtuously and
gracefully without any conscious effort, like an orator who knows his speech so
well that it seems extemporaneous.

He reports on how the concept of wu wei was defined two centuries after Confucius:

Hence
the preoccupation with wu wei, whose ancient significance has become clearer to
scholars since the discovery in 1993 of bamboo strips in a tomb in the village
of Guodian in central China. The texts on the bamboo, composed more than three
centuries before Christ, emphasize that following rules and fulfilling
obligations are not enough to maintain social order.

These
texts tell aspiring politicians that they must have an instinctive sense of
their duties to their superiors: “If you try to be filial, this not true
filiality; if you try to be obedient, this is not true obedience. You cannot
try, but you also cannot not try.”

Taoists, Tierney adds, had a different idea:

Taoists
did not strive. Instead of following the rigid training and rituals required by
Confucius, they sought to liberate the natural virtue within. They went with
the flow. They disdained traditional music in favor of a funkier new style with
a beat. They emphasized personal meditation instead of formal scholarship.

Rejecting
materialistic ambitions and the technology of their age, they fled to the
countryside and practiced a primitive form of agriculture, pulling the plow
themselves instead of using oxen. Dr. Slingerland calls them “the original
hippies, dropping out, turning on, and stickin’ it to the Man more than 2,000
years before the invention of tie-dye and the Grateful Dead.”

Hopefully, this sounds somewhat familiar. Taoists were more
introspective. They sought to liberate their impulses and instincts. They
believed that they could do so without working very hard. Some of them even
believed that hard work would prevent them from accessing their inner selves.

It is reasonable to ask how well the Taoist life plan worked
out. How well did they do when they retired to the countryside to get in touch
with their more primitive instincts? As well as the hippies?

1 comment:

re: Taoists were more introspective. They sought to liberate their impulses and instincts. They believed that they could do so without working very hard. Some of them even believed that hard work would prevent them from accessing their inner selves. ... How well did they do when they retired to the countryside to get in touch with their more primitive instincts?

These Taoists would rather pull a plow themselves than use an ox, BUT they don't want to work very hard?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism---------Taoist propriety and ethics may vary depending on the particular school, but in general tends to emphasize wu-wei (action through non-action), "naturalness", simplicity, spontaneity, and the Three Treasures: compassion, moderation, and humility....In general, Taoism rejects the Confucianist emphasis on rituals, hierarchical social order, and conventional morality, and favors naturalness, spontaneity, and individualism instead.---------

I don't get the desire to paint virtue on one side and vice on another, while it seems like life needs a balance, needs conservative points of view that defend tradition and resists change, and another side that allows more open-ended interpretations of experience, and is willing to experiment, be wrong, and try again.

That said, it does seem that hyperindividualism (not clearly Taoism?!) has taken us as far as it can, and crises are going to force us to be more social soon enough, for our own survival.

The original article seems ends with the idea of union:-------[Dr. Slingerland] likes the compromise approach of Mencius, a Chinese philosopher in the fourth century B.C. who combined the Confucian and Taoist approaches: Try, but not too hard. Mencius told a parable about a grain farmer who returned one evening exhausted from his labors.-----

Mencius looks interesting to learn more about:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencius"All relationships should be beneficial, but each has its own principle or inner logic. "..."According to Mencius, education must awaken the innate abilities of the human mind. He denounced memorization and advocated active interrogation of the text, saying, "One who believes all of a book would be better off without books". One should check for internal consistency by comparing sections and debate the probability of factual accounts by comparing them with experience."